You have a heart (and i have a key)
by ibuzoo
Summary: Ginny's words are meant to be good but they're drown in blame when she reminds her that there's no point of return as soon as she gets involved with Tom. (but Tom is pestilential and her lungs eat smoke, breathe green)


**You have a heart (and i have a key)**

**Prompt: **Friends

**Rating: **T

**Warnings/Tags: **Modern AU / College AU / Hermione's friends think Tom is poison / but she doesn't listen

**Word count: **1096

**Summary: **Ginny's words are meant to be good but they're drown in blame when she reminds her that there's no point of return as soon as she gets involved with Tom.

_(but Tom is pestilential and her lungs eat smoke, breathe green)_

**A/N:** Tom's just mentioned between the lines, and the focus is really on Hermione's friends who corner her one after one to ask about her relationship with Tom. While rereading it i noticed that all of them sound really harsh and kinda unsympathic, but that was totally unintentionally haha.

**Disclaimer: **This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by J.K. Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros. Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

* * *

**o.**

The only time they notice that she's even alive, is when they're scared that she's going to die.

**i.**

"Tell me about him," Harry says, demands and there's something in his voice that makes Hermione cringe, something like desperation or even chagrin. They're sitting in the library's rearmost table, no one around them who could possibly disturb their conversation and Hermione feels the slight suspicion that this is exactly how Harry planned it beforehand.

She doesn't know what he wants her to say so she opens her mouth slightly, tries to figure out how to answer and her eyes observe the way his flurry returns to his shoulders, tense them up, push him to a limit where he'll snap, mostly out of fear and concern. She starts hesitantly and tells him about the way Tom speaks to her on a whole different level, how they're engulfed by books and sophisticated conversations but Harry doesn't want to hear this, shuts down his face and asks urgently, emphasizing each word, "You know who he is. You know what he **_does_**, Hermione."

His hand grabs around hers but Hermione retracts it as if the touch burned her skin.

She stays silent.

**ii.**

Harry tells her she should stop fixating on things destined to destroy themselves.

_(but seeing Tom was like walking trough a graveyard but she doesn't notice the ghosts of the good times she shared with their friends)_

**iii.**

"Tell me about him!" Ron barks and the fury is written on his face, the way his facial muscles distort in a vile grimace and his skin turns some shades darker, ruddier. He cornered her in the middle of yard right outside of Oxford and Hermione sees his fists clotting by his sides, sees his fingertips burning inside. She isn't intimidated, neither does she fear Ron because after all they're still friends, they are and she gets why he's furious, or mostly hurt._ (it's his pride that speaks and his love that acts) _

_"_What do you want to know?" , she asks calmly, clutching her books to her chest and Ron looks frantic, the same way Harry did some days ago and his eyes dart around until they set on hers again.

"Do you love him?"

There's procrastination in his voice and a pain that sways with every word and Hermione feels her breath sticking in her lungs, a swelling on her windpipe, so she nods, stays silent.

**iv.**

Ron eyes speak storybooks and tell her how much he cares about her, how much he thinks he'd fit better in her life.

_(but Tom is pure darkness and by the time light reaches for the curve of her lips or lingers briefly where her eyelashes brush her cheeks, he already burned out the heart of her)_

**v.**

"Tell me about him," Ginny says, her hair even redder in the setting sun while they were heading home from a local bookstore, and Ginny continues, subsidiary, "We don't see you anymore." It feels and sounds a lot like an accusation but Hermione ignores it, embraces the bag with her new bought books _(books for herself, books for him) _and slows down her steps, adjusts them to Ginny's stroll.

It's easier to talk to Ginny than to the boys and Hermione tells her about the way he looks at her, the brilliance behind the man, the way he postulates her mind, the way she loves him, the way he loves her. Ginny's head snaps up at that, catches her gaze and bites her lips. Her eyes are soaked in worry and concern, but Hermione avoids the assertion, looks ahead, her smile never faltering.

**vi.**

Ginny's words are meant to be good but they're drown in blame when she reminds her that there's no point of return as soon as she gets involved with Tom.

_(but Tom is pestilential and her lungs eat smoke, breathe green)_

vii.

"Tell me about him," Luna says and Hermione hadn't notice her come in, so she clutches her book close to her chest, breathes rapidly, her heart racing and she tries to regain her composure, tries to think straight.

She has been absorbed in the book and words are dancing right before her eyes, so she asks, confused, "Who?" Luna flashes her a genuine smile that crosses her face from one cheek to another and Hermione can read the sympathy in it, the reminder of a friendship.

They're in an abandoned aisle of the university and Luna sits down beside her on the floor, right under one of the big windows and the sunlight illuminates their hairs, Luna's shining like a halo around her petite feminin face.

_(sometimes she wishes her hair would be easier too, not the mess of locks she's lugging round all the time) _

"You know who," she insists and Hermione can't hide a sheepish smile, closes the book and starts to talk. She repeats the same words and phrases she did to Ginny, reveals a bit of a world she's part of now and Luna nods, seems to understand, stays silent and listens.

**viii.**

Luna's voice is soothing, reassuring, asks if he's serious about Hermione, if he really loves her and Hermione tries to move her lips, make syllables with her mouth but no loud escapes.

_(but loving Tom is breaking her own bones so she can build him a castle, a home)_

**ix.**

"Tell me about him," Neville says while he helps her to spread some leaflets about her newest project and they have both piles of fliers in their arms when he continues, "I want to hear your version." She's surprised at his calm voice and the adult that speaks out of it so she nods and starts to talk, again, and this time she really tries to convince Neville that Tom isn't as bad as all the other make him.

_(perhaps she tries to convince herself too)_

Neville listens, gives her the feeling that he tries to understand and when she finishes she says, hesitantly, "That's all. I told you about him, are you happy?"

But Neville shoots back, perturbed, "Are you?"

Hermione stays silent once more.

**x.**

Neville asks again some time later, when all the fliers are distributed, asks if she's happy with Tom, if she's not scared at all and Hermione nods, tries to smile but stays mute.

_(but Tom cannot scare her with his radiating caliginosity, not when her core is only an echo of the poison inside)_

**xi.**

No one asks again, this is all they talk about.

_(this is all anyone will talk about)_


End file.
